Comparative study on fretting wear damage mechanisms of 316L steel in dry air and liquid lead-bismuth eutectic environments

Due to flow induced vibration caused by coolant circulation, fretting wear inevitably occurs between fuel cladding, heat exchanger tubes and their holders in Gen IV lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) cooled nuclear reactors. Focusing on this issue, in the current work, fretting wear behavior and damage mec...

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Main Authors: Qi Sun, Yu Qin, Haowen Tang, Qian Yang, Pengfei Yang, Xiaoqiang Fan, Minhao Zhu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-09-01
Series:Journal of Materials Research and Technology
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2238785425019258
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author Qi Sun
Yu Qin
Haowen Tang
Qian Yang
Pengfei Yang
Xiaoqiang Fan
Minhao Zhu
author_facet Qi Sun
Yu Qin
Haowen Tang
Qian Yang
Pengfei Yang
Xiaoqiang Fan
Minhao Zhu
author_sort Qi Sun
collection DOAJ
description Due to flow induced vibration caused by coolant circulation, fretting wear inevitably occurs between fuel cladding, heat exchanger tubes and their holders in Gen IV lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) cooled nuclear reactors. Focusing on this issue, in the current work, fretting wear behavior and damage mechanisms in air and LBE environments at 350 °C were comparatively investigated. The results reveal that both of the microstructures under fretting interfaces in these two environments are composed of third body layer (TBL) and plastic deformation layer (PDL). While, fretting wear damage in LBE environment is obviously more serious, due to the change of fretting wear mechanisms. In air environment, fretting damage is dominated by abrasive wear and oxidation wear. In contrast, delamination wear also plays a crucial role in LBE environment, which is related to the phase transformation from austenite to ferrite induced by the elective leaching of Ni. Accordingly, the possible reasons behind such a phenomenon were proposed and discussed. The results in this work are not only expected to better understand failure behavior of fretting wear in liquid LBE environment, but also provide a possible guide for selecting the optimal damage protection method.
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issn 2238-7854
language English
publishDate 2025-09-01
publisher Elsevier
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series Journal of Materials Research and Technology
spelling doaj-art-4f36ce973c8b41f8aff3c7e2cca510de2025-08-20T03:16:00ZengElsevierJournal of Materials Research and Technology2238-78542025-09-013871872710.1016/j.jmrt.2025.07.267Comparative study on fretting wear damage mechanisms of 316L steel in dry air and liquid lead-bismuth eutectic environmentsQi Sun0Yu Qin1Haowen Tang2Qian Yang3Pengfei Yang4Xiaoqiang Fan5Minhao Zhu6Key Laboratory of Advanced Technologies of Materials (Ministry of Education), School of Material Science and Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China; Corresponding author.Key Laboratory of Advanced Technologies of Materials (Ministry of Education), School of Material Science and Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, ChinaKey Laboratory of Advanced Technologies of Materials (Ministry of Education), School of Material Science and Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, ChinaKey Laboratory of Advanced Technologies of Materials (Ministry of Education), School of Material Science and Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, ChinaCollege of Engineering, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, Zhejiang, 321004, ChinaKey Laboratory of Advanced Technologies of Materials (Ministry of Education), School of Material Science and Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, ChinaKey Laboratory of Advanced Technologies of Materials (Ministry of Education), School of Material Science and Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, ChinaDue to flow induced vibration caused by coolant circulation, fretting wear inevitably occurs between fuel cladding, heat exchanger tubes and their holders in Gen IV lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) cooled nuclear reactors. Focusing on this issue, in the current work, fretting wear behavior and damage mechanisms in air and LBE environments at 350 °C were comparatively investigated. The results reveal that both of the microstructures under fretting interfaces in these two environments are composed of third body layer (TBL) and plastic deformation layer (PDL). While, fretting wear damage in LBE environment is obviously more serious, due to the change of fretting wear mechanisms. In air environment, fretting damage is dominated by abrasive wear and oxidation wear. In contrast, delamination wear also plays a crucial role in LBE environment, which is related to the phase transformation from austenite to ferrite induced by the elective leaching of Ni. Accordingly, the possible reasons behind such a phenomenon were proposed and discussed. The results in this work are not only expected to better understand failure behavior of fretting wear in liquid LBE environment, but also provide a possible guide for selecting the optimal damage protection method.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2238785425019258Fretting wearDamage mechanismLead-bismuth eutectic316L steel
spellingShingle Qi Sun
Yu Qin
Haowen Tang
Qian Yang
Pengfei Yang
Xiaoqiang Fan
Minhao Zhu
Comparative study on fretting wear damage mechanisms of 316L steel in dry air and liquid lead-bismuth eutectic environments
Journal of Materials Research and Technology
Fretting wear
Damage mechanism
Lead-bismuth eutectic
316L steel
title Comparative study on fretting wear damage mechanisms of 316L steel in dry air and liquid lead-bismuth eutectic environments
title_full Comparative study on fretting wear damage mechanisms of 316L steel in dry air and liquid lead-bismuth eutectic environments
title_fullStr Comparative study on fretting wear damage mechanisms of 316L steel in dry air and liquid lead-bismuth eutectic environments
title_full_unstemmed Comparative study on fretting wear damage mechanisms of 316L steel in dry air and liquid lead-bismuth eutectic environments
title_short Comparative study on fretting wear damage mechanisms of 316L steel in dry air and liquid lead-bismuth eutectic environments
title_sort comparative study on fretting wear damage mechanisms of 316l steel in dry air and liquid lead bismuth eutectic environments
topic Fretting wear
Damage mechanism
Lead-bismuth eutectic
316L steel
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2238785425019258
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